Tony did not know what he was supposed to feel when T’Challa explained that even Shuri—whom Stark had come to respect—and a whole collection of Wakandan specialists had no idea how to remove the filth from Barnes’s mind.
They needed to bring him to the Tower, run tests, scan his brain… Yes, of course.
It needed to be done.
A second super-soldier was never useless, and Steve had told Tony a little about his friend before everything happened.
Tony even liked him, in a way.
He understood that Barnes was not responsible for the deaths of his parents—something Tony had already had many years to accept.
HYDRA was responsible.
In truth, he was angrier at Steve for knowing and saying nothing than he was at Bucky.
Barnes had hardly chosen to become a laboratory animal, and he was not inherently cruel.
Probably.
It was simply difficult.
Apparently that was what happened when you invited your mother’s killer into your home.
Tony knew that framing it that way only made everything worse.
The rational part of his brain practically screamed that he had forgiven everyone.
He had even made peace with Wanda, and that had been incredibly difficult.
The little witch had managed to forgive him too, had befriended Peter, and now often flew over to visit, baked pastries, and stayed for movie nights.
Barnes was even less responsible for the deaths of Tony’s parents than Tony himself was responsible for the deaths of Wanda and Pietro’s parents.
“It could have been anyone in his place.
He was used.
He does not even remember it.” Ten useful methods for calming yourself down.
Tony had been holding these conversations with himself for years, and especially often during the last week.
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow they would bring that man here.
They had even decided to thaw him out for the occasion.
Tony would have to walk in, smile, and begin doing something intelligent enough to remove the ‘Serial Killer’ setting from his brain.
What could possibly go wrong?
Even Peter, with his questionable powers of observation, noticed something was wrong with Tony.
Stark himself refused to explain why he moved around in a trance.
None of the Avengers knew Barnes was being transported, so naturally they could not tell Peter anything about Tony either.
In desperation, Peter wandered around the Tower questioning every second person he saw.
He encountered Wanda entirely by accident.
One look at her face told Peter that she suspected something.
Speaking with her made him slightly uncomfortable because her magic disturbed his spider-sense badly, but he had few alternatives.
When he asked, Wanda smiled and led him somewhere private.
Peter appreciated the gesture.
If Tony had not told even him, the rest of the Avengers certainly did not need to know.
“I’m not completely certain.” Wanda frowned slightly, as though remembering something unpleasant.
“When I was trying to convince myself to forgive Tony, I looked much the same.
I think this has something to do with the Winter Soldier.” Peter nodded, relieved that someone had offered a plausible explanation for what was happening.
He knew about Tony and Wanda’s former ‘disagreements,’ which made him value her help even more.
He had heard far more about the conflict with Mr.
Barnes.
Once, Peter had found Tony in the middle of a panic attack.
At the time, Tony had only recently returned from Siberia and was deeply shaken.
Peter had initially been furious with both Steve and Bucky for what they had done to his mentor.
Later Tony opened up even more and admitted that he understood he should not blame Barnes.
He wanted to forgive him, forget it, and take revenge on the people truly responsible—HYDRA.
Hearing that, Peter had filled with pride.
Tony might genuinely be the best person alive.
Peter decided to conduct a little espionage and discover what involving Bucky could have affected Tony so badly.
The operation was almost successful.
Peter learned that Barnes would arrive tomorrow, but F.R.I.D.A.Y.
betrayed him.
Why, Gorgeous?
Why?
Now he sat in an armchair in Tony’s office and pretended to look embarrassed.
He was not.
First, he was delighted with the information he had acquired.
Second, he finally had an opportunity to inspect Tony’s office.
Third, he was Stark’s son.
What even was embarrassment?
Tony looked at him tiredly, but with narrowed eyes.
Narrowed eyes were good.
They meant Tony was not angry.
Though he was almost never angry, especially not with Peter.
He was probably wondering how the kid had managed to figure it out at all.
“You wouldn’t tell me what was happening, so I had to find out.” Peter decided not to expose Wanda.
She had only pointed him in the right direction.
“And I’m sure I did the right thing, because you are a very bad puppy.
You can’t hide everything forever.
I might be able to help.
Do you want me to come with you tomorrow?” Tony rubbed his temples and gave Peter one of his displeased looks.
Since when did his own child lecture him?
Fine, it had once been Pepper alone.
Now that Peter had joined the rehabilitation team, their success was inevitable.
“All right.” Tony smiled as the kid lit up.
“But don’t think I’m unaware that you’ve been dreaming of meeting him.
And there are rules.
First, not a word to the team.
Second, no living soul can know he’s here until I remove the programming from his head.” “Not even Ned and MJ?” Peter drew the question out.
He definitely would not tell the Avengers, but surely his friends were different.
“Especially Ned.” Tony gave a long sigh as Peter’s face fell.
“Only MJ.
But Ned does not hear a word.” Peter nodded eagerly.
Tony smirked and sent him out of the office.
Hopefully Ned truly would not be told.
As for MJ, she was frightening and not particularly talkative.
What a lovely little group they made.
*** The following morning was extremely tense for Tony.
He managed to send the Avengers far enough away from the Tower that they would not notice a Wakandan aircraft landing on the roof.
He remained nervous, but not quite as badly.
Peter was responsible for that improvement.
The kid could not remain quiet for even a second, bouncing between how badly he wanted to work on Barnes’s brain and how he should behave in front of T’Challa.
Tony silently acknowledged that he was profoundly grateful for Peter’s presence.
When the aircraft arrived, Tony decided to speak with T’Challa and Shuri first and allowed Peter to handle the Winter Soldier himself.
At first he attempted to feel guilty about that decision.
Then he remembered that Peter was thrilled, and that Barnes—even in his dangerous state—would probably be incapable of touching him.
This was the kid who had taken down Captain America.
He was literally the best possible candidate for talking to Bucky.
Burning with impatience, Peter walked into the section of the aircraft where Bucky was being kept.
On the way, he passed Shuri, who, in his opinion, was impossibly cool and was hurrying toward Tony.
Peter had once worked with her on nanoparticles.
Ever since, he experienced overwhelming excitement whenever he saw so much as a photograph of her.
He had not seen photographs of Bucky, so he did not know his face particularly well.
The missing arm was a useful identifying feature, however.
Also, there was only one person in the cabin, which did not leave many possibilities.
Bucky looked surprised when a teenager entered instead of Stark.
“Hi.
Tony is talking to the royal family, so I’m your babysitter for now.” Peter smiled, then began studying the place where the prosthetic arm attached with obvious interest.
“I think I could make you a really cool arm.
One you can feel.
You were frozen, so you probably haven’t heard the news.
My name is Peter.
I’m sort of Tony’s son.
Adopted, you know.” “Uh, Peter, right?
Are you sure Tony doesn’t mind you being in here with me?” Bucky could not understand how calm the kid was while sharing a room with him.
Why was he not afraid for his life?
“You do know I’m, well, a little dangerous?” “I’m not saying your activation code, am I?
Besides, Tony probably hopes my presence alone can heal you.” Peter smirked and raised his eyebrows.
He approached a table and examined the holographic projector.
That meant F.R.I.D.A.Y.
could operate here.
“All right, Gorgeous, show me every file on this guy.
More precisely, on his brain.
What have all those geniuses in Wakanda figured out?” Bucky stared, somewhat stunned, as Peter moved through file after file and periodically asked questions of F.R.I.D.A.Y.—whom he insistently called Gorgeous.
Bucky lost track of the conversation.
By the time he realized it, the kid was watching him expectantly as though waiting for an answer.
To what question?
“I asked what you think about the arm.
It shouldn’t be too difficult, honestly.” Peter scratched his chin thoughtfully while talking and reviewing data at the same time.
“I mean, the prosthetic itself would be complicated.
I’m still figuring out how to make it softer so it feels like skin.
Tony developed an amazing technology that recreates nerve endings.
All we need is to build the prosthesis and ‘connect’ it to the person.
I’ve wanted to try it for a long time.
Want one?” “Well… yes, probably.” Bucky gave the teenager a skeptical look.
“Aren’t you a little young to be doing all this?” “I’m sixteen, and I’m a genius.” Peter smiled when he heard how that sounded.
“Also, I’m Spider-Man.
We’ve met before, in Germany.
That answers the unspoken question of whether Tony or I are worried about my life while I’m near you.
Gorgeous, scan his brain quickly so we have a comparison while he’s feeling normal.” “Why do you call her Gorgeous?” Peter froze in complete shock and replayed the question in his head.
God.
God, had someone finally asked?
He had waited so long for this question that he could barely contain the surge of delight.
Apparently all it had taken was a conversation with the lethally dangerous Winter Soldier.
Incredible.
“I have dreamed of someone asking me that forever,” Peter said, studying the newly projected image of Bucky’s brain.
“One day I was going through her code and noticed lines made of thirty-one zeroes and a single one.
I found all the lines like that.
I was bored, so I counted the position of the one in each line, matched the numbers to letters, and got the word Gorgeous.
I thought it was an incredibly cool coincidence and decided to call her that.” Peter was about to continue, but suddenly went quiet and began digging through the files twice as intensely.
From his expression, Bucky could tell he had realized something and was now holding an internal argument while trying to verify it.
Strange child.
Bucky was about to call to him when Tony, Shuri, and T’Challa appeared in the doorway.
Bucky noticed Tony attempt to remain calm and fail to suppress a slight frown.
Then Stark became distracted by the kid muttering to himself.
He glanced at the princess, but she clearly had no idea what was happening either.
“Hey, brat.” Peter’s head snapped up as though he had not noticed them enter.
Apparently he truly had not.
“I hope you haven’t caught some kind of super-soldier virus.
No offense, Barnes.” “No, no, wait, don’t distract me.” Peter searched the records with intense concentration, then raised a fist and smiled triumphantly.
“I know how to remove the programming from his head.
Also, I promised to make him an arm, so you aren’t allowed to forbid me.” “Slow down.” Everyone in the room looked stunned, but Tony had apparently become accustomed to the kid’s behavior and recovered quickly.
“Are you telling me you discovered how to remove the filth from his brain during the eight minutes you’ve known him?
Shuri has been fighting with this problem for two years.” “Yep.” Peter smiled casually and waved everyone toward the screens.
Bucky understood none of it but approached too.
“Basically, I mentioned binary code by accident, and then I thought, why not?
They could have tortured him or connected him to something somehow.
I’m not sure what technology they had available, but they were programming him like a computer.
Also, his brain reacted strangely when I said zeroes and ones.
I converted the activation words into binary, built a projection, arranged all the symbols, and got this beautiful thing.
The word ‘Activation’ in zeroes and ones.
Now we need to find words that form the phrase ‘Total Deactivation,’ and that should clear him completely.
F.R.I.D.A.Y.
is already working on it.
I think I’m awesome.” “You are a genius, kiddo,” Tony said in amazement, ruffling Peter’s hair.
Then he looked at Bucky and, to the soldier’s surprise, patted his shoulder.
“Welcome back to the ranks of normal people.” Peter spent another hour and a half with Shuri and Tony, answering the two geniuses’ enthusiastic questions while F.R.I.D.A.Y.
searched for the necessary words.
The task was difficult, but when she finally found them, Peter was allowed to read the resulting sequence.
He spoke it with some nervousness, then suggested testing whether it had worked.
According to his theory, once the ‘cancellation code’ was spoken, the original program should erase itself automatically.
This time they took precautions.
Everyone left the room and allowed F.R.I.D.A.Y.
to say the activation words.
Peter jumped with joy when nothing happened.
Bucky probably did too, but no one could prove it.
Tony could probably tolerate a sane Barnes living in the Tower.
It might not even be very difficult, considering Peter had already befriended the super-soldier, arranged to build him an arm, and discussed Charlie and pancake-making.
That kid.
*** The following morning, Steve looked profoundly confused when he entered the kitchen and found his best friend standing in the middle of it wearing a Frozen apron, laughing at Peter’s chatter while Peter sat on the counter hugging Charlie, and debating whether to add chocolate chips to the cookies.
Peter noticed Steve and waved cheerfully, immediately launching into the story of how he had defeated Steve, Natasha, Clint, and Thor, followed by the story of lifting Thor’s hammer.
Steve became even more certain that reality had broken when Tony appeared, shamelessly called Bucky ‘Elsa,’ and asked whether he and Peter planned to make pancakes so he could warn Pepper in advance.
“Oh, hi, Steve.” Tony smiled while continuing to fight Peter for the jar of coffee.
“Forgot to mention it, but your pal can live here now too, because yesterday my genius son cured him of Serial Killer Mode.
You can show him the Tower and the gym, but only after they make pancakes.” Steve could not force out a single word.
Bucky looked at him, laughed, and began telling Peter what an idiot Steve had been when they were young.
Then they started discussing the new arm, pancakes, dogs, and their shared love of fruits such as plums.
At that point, Steve became absolutely certain he had entered an asylum.